Our diminished group met at Broadford at 10.30am.  A quick toilet stop and we headed up the HWY to Ennis Rd.   The weather was looking good especially considering the earlier forecasts of 16 and showers.  It was overcast with a slight breeze but no sign of rain.

We aired down to 20psi at the foot of Mountain Track.  The new stauns worked a treat airing down 11 tyres in the time it took Rio to nearly do one.  Finally he gave up and we finished off his last tyre with a staun.

We headed up Mountain Tk a short steep and rocky climb to the peak of Mount Hickey.  The rocks at the top were great. But with the tyre pressures low we all had plenty of grip.  I made a poor wheel placement and banged my front diff pumpkin into a large rock. No damage just some love marks.

Mt Hickey was cold and windy so we didn’t hang around long.  We jumped back in the cars and headed for Rock Tk. The track was interesting but not hard so Vitina jumped in the drivers seat to have a go.

At Horan Tk we turned left heading for Cable Tk.  Half way along Cable Tk there was an intersect with step climbs left and right.  We took the right track.  Vitina was tentative but did a great job of the climb.  All the others made it up without drama.

From here things got a little vague.  Not because I was on the turps but because there was no markings on the tracks.  We wandered around in a south easterly direction (latter working out that we were on Brandy Cnr Tk) for a while. 

We took a very narrow track to the left off the main track (Brandy Tk I think).  This led to a very steep hill that was covered in shale like stones.  It was damp but not wet and wasn’t very rutted. As there was barely any room to turn the three vehicles around I decided to give it ago.  I got a third of the way up before I stopped making progress up the hill – even though I had all four wheels spinning (oh what I’d give for a good set of muddies now – and some diff locks).  Gee it was slippery.  I backed (slid) back down to the bottom.  Another go. I had all four wheels spinning at the bottom now, getting just enough momentum to get ¼ the way up this time.  The only way up would be to winch!

However, everyone was hungry, we wanted to explore some more and winching would take at least a couple of hours so we decided to turn around.  Even this was a logistical nightmare making 50 point turns for three vehicles on the side of a slippery hill.

We had a well deserved BBQ lunch in a nice spot just off Teehan No. 3 Tk.

With our hunger satisfied we went in search of some mud holes to show Dennis and Joy just how dirty we can get.

 We found a little but not much even after travelling the following: